I’ve been really bad about doing anything resembling a sane workload in the past, so I’ve been working on improving my schedule and getting stuff done. Right now I’m working full-time and trying to get everything booted up, so there are a few things that I’m doing to really keep disciplined and get writing done.
The first thing is writing more plain fiction and nonfiction. I used to constantly work on game projects and do massive amounts of production. With velotha’s flock, everything fell into place pretty quick because it’s not hyper-specialized, but that didn’t work with Segira, which is a project of the same scale and scope.
Some of that comes to philosophy. velotha’s flock is super simple in how I put it together, and I accepted that it was going to be simple.
Segira is a military-oriented game, and I found that I was not willing to do some of the cutting I had to do because I’m a bit of a nerd about that sort of thing.
By working on something like a novel, novella, or just my Wattpad I have something to avoid burning out on a project during, and also get a little writing done. I’ve also made myself a much better writer because of the fact that I’ve branched out. That’s good.
Right now I’m sort of making plans for 2018. I’ve made plans before, and they’ve fallen through, but with the new schedule I’m probably looking at something like the following:
January/February: velotha’s flock Early Bird Edition
This section of the year is where I’m going to try to get the stuff done for velotha’s flock. Once it finishes, I’ll put it on the back burner for a few months while I get feedback and playtest data, then move it into a finished version in late 2018 or early 2019.
March/April: Oskan’s Prophet, Hammercalled Roleplaying Game
I’ve been working on a Legacy of Eight product on-and-off for a long time, but the first product looks like it will probably be a novella, Oskan’s Prophet. This is part of a trilogy: Oskan’s Prophet will be the first part of a trio of Legacy of Eight product line, consisting of:
Oskan’s Prophet, a prequel novella. (2018)
Oskan’s Ark, a quick-start adventure, which will have to wait until TLoE actually comes out. (2018-2019)
Oskan’s Wake, a campaign about what happens after that resolves. (2020)
The Legacy of Eight is something I’d like to take to a really big product line, so it’s probably going to be not really touched until 2019, though I might get Oskan’s Ark finished in 2018 if I continue at the current rate of work. There’s some existing content for it, but it’s for Open Legend’s system. I have a new system in mind for it.
The Hammercalled Roleplaying Game will probably come out during the later parts of the year, but once velotha’s flock finishes, it’ll be going into full production again. I’ve already got a basic framework and some very preliminary playtesting done.
May/June/July: Gates of Arstelem, Hammercalled Roleplaying Game Alpha/Beta
I expect to get some work done on the Gates of Arstelem novel by the end of the year. I’m sort of put off of the Othenar roleplaying game for a bit, because I’m not happy about how it competes with the rest of the market. Basically, I feel that Symbaroum does Othenar better than Othenar does, so it needs to be approached from a new light.
The Hammercalled Roleplaying Game is going to be my main project for the rest of this period. I’m going to have more free time over this summer than I had over the previous one, so I should be able to get some work done on it that’s really productive.
I’m not willing to commit to anything past July at this point, but clearly The Legacy of Eight is something I want to keep going. I might also revisit Street Rats to update it to a somewhat decent modern system.
I’ve also been working on a collection of short stories called The Dust over on Wattpad. That might see a book at some point.